1967 Opel Kadett Members Only seat cover3 of 19The tire date codes could be either 1982 or 1992. These Members Only seat covers seem to indicate that the late 1980s was the last time anyone took care of this car.

Junkyard Treasure: 1967 Opel Kadett L

An early attempt by GM to sell its European-market cars in the United States

January 16, 2018

Share

Facebook

Tweet

Pinterest

Email

GM imported the Opel Kadett B, built at the recently closed plant in Bochum, Germany, into North America starting in 1966. American and Canadian car buyers weren't especially enthusiastic about these cheap little cars, but sufficient quantities were sold that they were fairly easy to find in American wrecking yards through the 1980s. Here's a '67 in a Denver-area self-service yard that managed to outlive most of its contemporaries.

This 1.1-liter straight-four made 54 horsepower. That's one more than the Kadett's main American rival, the VW Beetle. Photo by Murilee Martin

Kadetts were sold through Buick dealerships under the Opel name; later on, the Kadett C became the "Buick Opel" and shared a platform with the Chevrolet Chevette. My mother traded her majestic 1949 Cadillac coupe for a miserable Kadett B wagon when I was in kindergarten, so perhaps I am biased against these cars.

GM used these seat belts in everything. Photo by Murilee Martin

This one has the look of a car that stopped running 20 or 30 years ago and then sat outside, ravaged by the elements, since that time. Once the U.S. market became saturated by used Vegas and Civics (not to mention Corollas and Civics and B210s), the Kadett's value fell off a cliff.

This car has a four-on-the-floor manual transmission, so something got swapped during its life. Photo by Murilee Martin

The decklid badge says it's an automatic, but there's a four-speed manual inside. Was it a decklid or transmission swap? Either way, these cars were very, very cheap; the MSRP on a 1967 Kadett two-door sedan was $1,657 (about $12,500 in 2018 dollars), which compared favorably to the $1,639 Volkswagen Beetle that year. The Kadett had 54 hp to the Beetle's 53 (and weighed 93 fewer pounds than the Volks, to boot), so it was a bit quicker. On top of that, it had a heater that worked, plus a design dated a lot later than the late 1930s. Of course, most American car buyers looking for something economical preferred stripped-down versions of "traditional" American cars, e.g., the Chevy II ($2,090), the AMC Rambler American 220 ($2,073) the Ford Falcon ($2,118), or the Plymouth Valiant ($2,017). The Corvair two-door was $2,128 that year, too, and let's not forget the $1,790 Toyota Corona sedan.